


Mind Over Matter

by orphan_account



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-28
Updated: 2018-06-28
Packaged: 2019-05-29 17:28:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15078101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: "Keith frowned. 'Falling in love isn't really a miracle, though, it happens all the time.''It's just hormones syncing, practically pure biology," Pidge agreed.'Yeah, but isn't it a miracle anyway, though?' Hunk said with a faraway look in his eyes. 'Hormones syncing is one thing, but loving someone? Staying together, understanding each other, being happy – I mean, what are the chances?'Lance looked down at his hands and said nothing."A Soulmate AU, loosely.





	Mind Over Matter

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Error_name_not_found](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Error_name_not_found/gifts).



The day The Coincidence happened, Lance had no idea what was waiting for him, and Keith, and countless galaxies across the cosmos. He just knew he wanted to meet the garrison’s new pilot, the boy with navy blue eyes and a determined expression that could set the world on fire.

 

And a fucking mullet, obviously. A weird, baffling mullet that nobody seemed to question, for some reason.

 

Lance was so easy around people he didn’t think twice about approaching the standoffish new kid with mysterious origins, just bounded up to him like a golden retriever and stuck out his hand.

 

“Hey, Keith, right? I’m Lance. Nice to meet you.”

 

Keith turned and looked at him as if he was interrupting something, fixing his eyes on Lance with surprise and confusion. Lance was suddenly nervous under his gaze. Somehow, it felt more piercing than Keith probably intended.

 

“Oh. Lance? I’ve…heard of you.” Keith paused. “Why are you talking to me?”

 

Lance blinked, then laughed uncomfortably. “Um. because I wanted to?”

 

Keith furrowed his eyebrows. “Yeah, but you’re...you know, you.”

 

“Last time I checked, that’s true. Still don’t see what that has to do with anything.”

 

They stood like that for a while: Lance’s hand awkwardly extended, Keith staring at him like he was missing some obvious cue to leave.

 

Lance cleared his throat. “Are you going to shake my hand or what?” he asked, trying and failing to sound joking instead of nervous.

 

Keith narrowed his eyes. “Is this some sort of practical joke?”

 

“Dude, just shake my hand,” Lance said exasperatedly. “Worst case scenario you just get shocked or something, right? You seem like a guy willing to take risks.”

 

“Um. Fine, okay,” Keith said with a tone that implied he still didn’t understand what Lance wanted out of him.

 

Despite his wariness, though, Keith reached out and look Lance’s hand.

 

The first thing Lance felt was the crackle of electricity that shot through his fingertips. It was like being electrocuted, only somehow it didn’t make him want to let go. In fact, he felt like he could have stood there forever, just holding Keith’s hand in the middle of a half-empty hallway.

 

However, the second thing Lance noticed made him drop Keith’s hand immediately.

 

So I guess this is the annoying cargo pilot they were talking about. I have to say, he’s really not so –

 

Lance drew back from Keith with inhuman speed.

 

“Annoying? Cargo pilot? Who’s ‘they’?” Lance blurted out angrily.

 

“What are you talking about? I didn’t say any of that!” Keith answered, alarmed.

 

But Lance spoke over him, raising his voice enough to warrant a strange look from a passerby. “I know you clearly don’t talk to people much, but you don’t just say something like that to someone you just met, you know, I mean, what’s your problem –”

 

“I didn’t say anything,” Keith hissed, grabbing Lance by the shoulders.

 

At least, I don’t think I did, unless I muttered it under my breath by accident. Do I do that? I mean, if I do, it’s not like there’s usually someone around to hear. I don’t exactly have a horde of friends surrounding me–

 

Lance shoved Keith away, stumbling backwards in the process. A realization slowly dawned on him.

 

“I – I just read your – I’ve got to go,” he said breathlessly, before taking off towards his dorm, leaving behind a puzzled Keith even more confused than before.

 

*

 

As soon as Lance got back to his room, he flopped back on his bed and took a long, hard look at the ceiling, trying to process the events of the last few minutes.

 

He had just read Keith’s mind, and heard him thinking about people who called Lance an ‘annoying cargo pilot’, which shouldn’t even matter to him anymore because he had just read Keith’s mind, but which somehow made the people matter even more because of it–

 

He remembered what his great-aunt always said about organized thinking, focusing on one thing at a time, but his mind was swarming with thoughts, unable to land on anything substantial.

 

Could he suddenly read people’s minds? And if so, how? And why?

 

“Lance!” Pidge burst into their room and dropped a stack of books and circuit boards on their bed. “Hey! Are you okay? You look like you’re thinking really hard about something.”

 

Lance grinned. Just having Pidge around made him feel a little less frazzled. “And why does that make you think I’m not okay? Doesn’t everyone get an existential crisis once in awhile?”

 

Pidge plopped down by Lance’s side and nudged him with their foot. “Not you. The fact that you’re thinking at all is deeply worrying. Your brain might explode.”

 

“Well, at least I’d have the satisfaction of knowing you’d be the one who has to clean it off the walls.”

 

“Given the size of your brain, it would only take a few minutes.” Pidge shot back, smiling. They tilted their head thoughtfully. “You know, I could even store some of your brain matter to study. I’ve never seen a human brain before and I think it would be fascinating to –”

 

Lance groaned. “Please don’t fantasize about my brain exploding.”

 

“Yeah, yeah, fine,” Pidge grumbled. “So then enough with the gross brain talk. What was bothering you again? Causing your mind-shattering existential crisis?”

 

Lance sighed. Oh, yeah. That.

 

“Hey, Pidge?” Lance ventured hesitantly, sitting up and crossing his legs. “Can you...hold my hand or something?”

 

Pidge furrowed their eyebrows. “Um, what for, exactly? Will it help you feel better?”

 

“I guess? It’s sort of for science, in a way.”

 

“Oh! You’re finally taking an interest in science?” Pidge grabbed Lance’s hand abruptly. “Well, yeah, of course I can.”

 

Closing his eyes, Lance listened carefully for Pidge’s voice. He concentrated on the electric feeling he got with Keith, strained to hear a whisper or a hushed tone, but – there was nothing. No thoughts, no lightning. Not even an echo or a static shock.

 

Lance opened his eyes, completely baffled, and stared at Pidge, who was waiting eagerly to learn the results of Lance’s ‘experiment’.

 

“So?” Pidge asked after a few seconds. “Did you get the information you needed?”

 

Lance let go of their hand reluctantly. “Yeah, I think so.”

 

“Trick question!” Pidge exclaimed. “You’re never just done with a sample size of one. It even rhymes.”

 

“What rhymes?” Hunk stepped into the room.

 

“Hey,” Pidge waved him over. “Hunk, you’re just in time, come find out what rhymes!”

 

Hunk looked from Lance to Pidge to Lance again. “You got them talking about science, didn’t you? They’re doing that rhyming thing.”

 

Pidge rolled their eyes. “Lance here is conducting an experiment that involves human contact. He needs people to hold hands with him.”

 

“Oh, sure. I can totally help with that, my friend,” Hunk said cheerily. He thrust his hand towards Lance, who took it cautiously.

 

Lance waited for something to happen, but it was the same as before: nothing. He dropped Hunk’s hand in disappointment.

 

“Sorry buddy, it’s not working.” Lance turned to Pidge. “I don’t know the rhymes about sample sizes of two, but I think I’ve got what I need. It only works with...certain situations.”

 

“Well, I’m glad we could help,” Hunk shrugged pleasantly. “What were you trying to do anyway?”

 

“It doesn’t matter, it’s not important anymore,” Lance replied, perhaps more quickly than he should have. He cleared his throat. “I’ve learned my lesson, it turns out science is incredibly boring and dabbling with it was a huge mistake.”

 

Pidge bristled indignantly, taking Lance’s bait without hesitation. “I’ll have you know science has given us everything from medicine, to string theory, to the space exploration program we’re enrolled in at this very moment–”

 

“Don’t forget the electromagnetic wave equation, and freeze dried ice cream!” Hunk cut in.

 

Lance smiled as Pidge and Hunk launched into a comprehensive list of their favorite scientific achievements, ranging from pressurized cooling systems to laser pointers. He really loved his friends. He really loved that he even had friends.

 

Even so, a little after “computational fluid dynamics”, Lance’s mind eventually drifted back to Keith and the deranged situation he had stumbled into. Apparently, he could read Keith’s mind through contact, but no one else’s. The world’s weirdest and most specific superpower, great. Now Lance knew what was happening, which was good. But he still didn’t know why it was happening. Why did he seem to have some special bond with Keith of all people? Keith, the mulleted loner who thought he was a nuisance.

 

Speaking of which.

 

“Hey, guys,” Lance interrupted, stopping Hunk in the middle of a list of different types of magnets. “I know I’m the most likable and amazing pilot the garrison has ever seen, but do people think I’m annoying?”

 

Pidge laughed. “Probably. I sure do. What about you, Hunk?”

 

Hunk swatted Lance playfully. “I agree, I can’t stand to be around this guy.”

 

Lance frowned. “No, guys, seriously though.”

 

Hunk and Pidge instantly sobered up and exchanged a look. Lance could easily guess what they were thinking: he was never serious about anything.

 

Pidge spoke up first. “I’m not socially in-tune enough to know what other say about you, or me for that matter. I’m busy with...other things. But I can promise you, at least most of the time, that I don’t think you’re annoying.”

 

“Nor do I,” Hunk piped up. “You totally are the most likable and amazing pilot the garrison has ever seen.”

 

Lance narrowed his eyes. “You know what they’re saying, don’t you?”

 

Hunk winced. “I mean, yes. Sort of.”

 

“Is it really that bad?”

 

Instantly, he grimaced at the sound of his voice. He was going for carefree and offhanded, but he sounded just a shade too vulnerable to be casual.

 

Hunk seemed surprised at Lance, too. “Why does it matter? It’s just people saying the stuff people say. They’ll like you or they won’t.”

 

Lance knew just from the simple way Hunk said it that he genuinely believed it, that he wasn’t just saying it to make him feel better. Lance didn’t know whether to be pleased or dismayed that he seemed to have befriended the only two teenagers in the world who didn’t care at all about what other people thought.

 

He wished he could join them on their island of nonchalance, but despite his efforts, he couldn’t. Other people were other people, of course what they thought mattered. If only he could read their minds all the time.

 

He forced a laugh and threw an arm around Hunk. “Nothing, my friend, I’ve just got my eye on this smoking hot girl, and I don’t want her getting the wrong idea about me. She’s amazing, let me tell you all about her.”

 

Hunk and Pidge groaned and ignored Lance as he rambled on about a fictional girl with “raven black hair, guys, and a pair of eyes that are just, just insane”.

 

*

 

Once he had turned the situation over in his head for the thousandth time, Lance started thinking about the strange lightning side effect of reading Keith's mind. It was unique, but it also didn’t feel supernatural. In fact, it almost felt like the most natural thing in the world, that there would be a spark between them.

 

Lance decided it was the least weird and least important part of the whole thing.

 

“I need to have at least some sense of proportion,” he muttered to himself.

 

 

CHAPTER 2

 

After their trainwreck of a first meeting, Lance took to completely avoiding Keith. There were a million reasons why Lance should never look Keith in the eye again, so many that Lance never bothered asking himself which one he was basing his decision on. It could have been all of them, a churning, unpleasant mixture of potential awkwardness and confusion and annoying cargo pilot. But secretly, Lance had a feeling that it was none of them: there was just something about Keith, like he was the goddamn sun and Lance couldn’t look straight at him.

 

As for the mind-reading business, Lance had decided not to think about it. Not just not think about it, but put all his effort into adamantly ignoring it. He had no doubt his two genius friends could provide him with some scientifically satisfying reason for its existence, but he suspected it wasn’t something that could really be explained.

 

It wasn’t really that hard to avoid Keith, considering they never had to speak to each other, and neither of them seemed exactly eager to mend their relationship. Keith didn’t make an attempt to talk to him; it was pretty clear to Lance that he hadn’t forgotten about their confrontation. Every class they had together, Lance would catch Keith staring at him before quickly snapping his gaze towards the wall. Lance knew Keith likely thought he was insane after that disaster, but he had hoped he would be a little less obvious about it. Everyone else seemed to know how to judge him discreetly. After a few weeks, though, Keith finally stopped and resorted to very consciously looking at the floor when Lance was around, which was probably an improvement.

 

It was official: Lance may have had some weird spirit connection with Keith, but they were never going to talk to each other again. 

 

And Lance was alright with that. Lance was pretty sure he was alright with that.

 

Apparently, though, Hunk and Pidge weren’t. Even though it was Keith Lance was mentally bound to, the two seemed to immediately figured out something was wrong with him, and they knew it had to do with Keith. Every time he and Keith had to be in the same room together, Hunk would not-so-subtly glance at them, and Pidge would narrow their eyes like they were solving a mathematical equation. They finally decided to confront him about it in the mess hall after Keith and Lance walked past each other and Lance put so much effort into trying to look somewhere else that he tripped over a dropped fork on the way to a table.

 

“Okay, you have to tell me what is going on between you two,” Pidge demanded as Lance hastily scrambled back up and looked to see if anyone had noticed. A few people–including Keith–were staring at him in confusion, making his face burn.

 

“It’s not a big deal,” Lance muttered, picking up his dropped bag of ramen noodles and walking quickly to the table where Hunk was sitting.

 

Pidge frowned and walked after him, holding their lunch tray close to their chest as they weaved through the crowd to follow.

 

“Really,” they asked, tone flat. “Because it seems like at this point it might literally be a safety hazard. Should I put a caution sign on the floor any time Keith shows up?”

 

Lance slid next to Hunk and ripped open his bag of ramen. “Pidge. Seriously. It’s nothing.”

 

Lance usually told Hunk and Pidge everything, trusted them so deeply that sometimes he would let slip embarrassing secrets without even meaning to. But his connection to Keith was something he was determined to keep to himself. There were just so many levels on which they wouldn’t understand.

 

“We’re your friends, Lance, you’re not getting off the hook that easily,” Hunk says, elbowing him playfully. “Something’s going on between you two, I know th–“

 

“He’s basically my rival now, okay?” Lance blurts, just to get him to stop talking. 

 

Hunk and Pidge raise their eyebrows in synchronization. The effect of it would be almost eerie if the context wasn’t so ridiculous.

 

“Keith is your rival.” The disbelief in Pidge’s voice is clear. “Even though you’ve never even had a real conversation."

 

Hunk scrunches up his face. “How does that even make sense? You guys aren’t even comparable. He’s a fighter pilot, you’re–“

 

“What, just a cargo pilot?” Lance snaps, jamming his fork towards Hunk accusingly and with way too much unnecessary force.

 

Hunk recoils. “I mean, you guys just aren't even doing the same–Lance, are you okay?”

 

Lance sighs and slumps into his chair. There was no way this could end well. 

 

“I’m just tired,” He says lamely. “And Keith’s, like, it just is, okay?”

 

His voice sounds far more pleading than truthful, but to Hunk and Pidge’s eternal credit, they accept his answer without any suspicion. They could tell this conversation was going to be closed for a very, very long time.

 

*

 

For some reason, lately, Lance can’t stop thinking about the stars.

 

And sure, he’s always been obsessed with space, always longed to explore the unknown cosmos, it’s why he wanted to be a pilot in the first place. But lately it feels like some sort of calling, like space is longing for him right back. 

 

But mostly he thinks he went up to the roof that night because he was restless, because Hunk was sick and Pidge was busy and he’d been bored the whole day and he just needed to do something, anything so he wouldn’t fall asleep feeling aimless and hollowed out. 

 

Getting up to the roof without being noticed is easy, almost instinctual; he and Pidge and Hunk have spent a lot of time up there with satellite equipment, hunting aliens with various degrees of seriousness. Sometimes Pidge would get crazy determined and drag them up there every night to the point where Lance suspected that there was no way she didn’t have some ulterior motive. No one past the age of eight could possibly care about aliens that much. 

 

As hoists himself up the distance between the ladder and the roof’s surface, he wonders what he would do if they had actually found an alien back then. Lance knows he’d probably be shocked or scared or entranced by the new mysteries of the universe, but honestly, he and Hunk and Pidge have spent so long seriously considering the possibility that aliens could be real that honestly, he thinks he would end up just going with it.


End file.
